__
__|
| |__
|
|--Stacey
|
| __
|__|
|__
______________________
_Donald Richard BIRD __|
| |______________________
|
|--Jennifer BIRD
|
| _Paris Udall STEWART _+
|_Lois Carolyn STEWART _|
|_Erma JONES __________+
____________________
_Abia William BROWN _______|
| |____________________
|
|--Margery BROWN
|
| _Levi STEWART ______+
|_Lucinda Araminta STEWART _|
|_Margery WILKERSON _+
__
__|
| |__
|
|--David James BUCKLES
|
| __
|__|
|__
__
_Thomas HANFORD _____|
| |__
|
|--James HANFORD
|
| __
|_Elizabeth ROBINSON _|
|__
_Ernest Edwin HIGBEE _
_Edwin HIGBEE __|
| |_Lois WADSWORTH ______+
|
|--Lance David HIGBEE
|
| ______________________
|_Kristine HUNT _|
|______________________
__
__|
| |__
|
|--Joy Jeannette HUNT
|
| __
|__|
|__
__
__|
| |__
|
|--Lorin LA FEVRE
|
| __
|__|
|__
_Fred LAWSON _______
_Olen Wayne LAWSON _|
| |_Annie Pearl HANES _
|
|--Michael Wayne LAWSON
|
| ____________________
|_Norma Jane SPARKS _|
|____________________
_Harry Gilbert MANNING _
_Neil Harry MANNING _|
| |_Georgia UDALL _________+
|
|--Susan Marie MANNING
|
| ________________________
|_Verla Mary TERRY ___|
|________________________
__
__|
| |__
|
|--Martha Elizabeth MITCHELL
|
| __
|__|
|__
_Charles Hardy STEWART _+
_Cordell William STEWART _|
| |_Stephanie "K" WRIGHT __
|
|--Chelsi Megan STEWART
|
| ________________________
|_Jimiann SMITH ___________|
|________________________
_Arthur O. F. THOMPSON _
_Archie Lamb THOMPSON _|
| |_Gladys L LAMB _________+
|
|--Shirley Jean THOMPSON
|
| ________________________
|_Pauline KAUFMAN ______|
|________________________
__
_David UDALL _|
| |__
|
|--Charles Henry UDALL
|
| __
|_Eliza KING __|
|__
_David WILKERSON ___+
_Thomas WILKERSON _|
| |_ELIZABETH KING ____+
|
|--Margery WILKERSON
|
| _William FOLLOWELL _
|_Eliza FOLLOWELL __|
|_Margery MILES _____
[34]
MARRIAGE: In 1852, a friend, Brother Wimmer, drove up with a company of emigrants. When Levi came across to see him he said, "Brother Levi, I have brought you a wife." Levi said, "Well, that's nice," thinking little of it. But a few minutes later a young girl not yet twenty stepped from behind one of the wagons and was introduced to him as Margery Wilkerson. A quick friendship between Levi and Margery developed into a lifelong devotion. They were married four months later, December 1852 in the Office of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah. SOURCE: Some Incident in the Life of Levi Stewart, Founder of Kanab Utah, History of Kane Co, by Marjery Browne Cottam, p 545 Researcher: Georgenia Stewart
DEATH: In December of that same first year, 1870, came the tragedy that was to leave its scar on the lives of this family and almost disrupt the entire settlement of Kanab, Utah. The Navajo and Northern Indians had been making raids on the settlements. The young men took turns guarding the cattle at night from a small dugout in the side of a hill. The other men took turns guarding the fort. Once Jacob Hamblin persuaded the Navajos to come to Kanab and hold a peace conferenc as there was always tension.
On the night of December 14, the guard who was to relieve Brother Pugh as guard at one o'clock did no awaken but seemed to be overpowered with sleep. He was roused once, then twice, and even started to dress. Brother Pugh went home and to bed, thinking all was well, but in some way the guard fell back over on the bed asleep, leaving the fort unguarded. At four o'clock, fire was discovered in the Stewart section of the fort. Little Lucinda remembers how her father rushed to see what he could do. Margery quickly threw a spread around herself and rushed over to the burning portion. Their own room was safe as it was separated from the burning part by many feet. There was a space left for another room which had not yet been built and which was protected only by a row of wagons drawn together. These wagons were used as sleeping quarters for some of the older children. The kitchen roof was already ablaze so there was no hope of saving that part of the house. But in the bedroom next to it, the one on the corner, slept the boys, Margery's three, Artimacy's two, a hired man, and Levi, the youngest son of the first wife, Melinda. This room had no windows as did none of the outside rooms of the fort in order to make them impregnable to the Indians. The only exit was through the flaming kitchen. Levi and the other men, knowing that this bedroom held stores of kerosene and powder, seized axes and started battering out the logs of the wall. They got two logs out and crawled through into the suffocating smoke-filled room. They found the beds empty and no one in the room. It was impossible to get into the blazing inferno of the kitchen. They knew that the smoking powder and kerosene might explode any minute, so they crawled back out. Levi ordered the others out and carried two kegs of powder already smoking and dumped them into the creek. Then the kerosene exploded and went up in flames.
Little did Levi realize what was happening on the other side of the kitchen. When Margery rushed out of their bedroom, she immediately took in the situation and knew that the only hope for the boys was through the kitchen. Her mother's love was greater than her fears or her reasoning power, and unseen by any except her daughter Ella, who happened to be there from Pipe Springs, she rushed into the flames. Ella tried to follow her mother but was held back by the men. Once in the kitchen, Margery met Artimacy's boy Alonzo Lafayette and the hired man, Harvey Stout, who, blinded by the smoke, were groping around trying to find an exit. She pushed them through the door and turned to find the others. No one knows what really happened then. The explosion prevented anyone else from entering. They found the six charred bodies; the mother and three boys were found huddled in the immense fireplace as if she had been trying to lift them up the chimney. One was under the big stove, less burned than the others. They dug out the bodies and sadly buried them in one grave. Alonzo told afterward of how his brother, Levi had tried, when they found themselves trapped, to lift the sod roof of the bedroom, but it had been too firmly packed with grass and willows.
The funeral was heartrending. Some of the neighbors tried to sing but it was no use. One after another, several brethren tried to speak but no words would come. It was the heartbroken father and husband who alone could control his emotions enough to offer his tribute to the beloved wife who had given her life to save her sons.
It is hard to imagine the heartbreak and gloom that enveloped the little settlement. Levi was crushed by the terrible tragedy, but still his valiant spirit held steadfast. When the other men said they wanted to give up the settlement,that they could not bear to live there any longer, Levi begged them to stay and complete the mission President Young had sent them to perform. At last when they still wavered, he said, "Well, if you must go, God be with you, but as for me, I will stay if I have to stay alone." The other men remained.
Levi never dared give way to his grief before others because he felt that as their leader he must keep up the morale of the disheartened people. Jacob Hamblin told of finding him one day way up the canyon pouring out his grief and praying for strength. His health gradually broke and five years later he was released from the Bishopric.
As soon as President Young heard the news of the fire, he set out in his buggy for Kanab to offer what comfort and spiritual strength he could. He had greatly admired Margery and was always free in expressing his confidence in Levi and his admiration and friendship from him. He said, "Brother Levi, Sister Margery went to heaven in a flame of glory." And indeed her memory has always been enshrined as a heroine in the hearts of her children and descendants. SOURCE: Some Incidents in the Life of Levi Stewart, Founder of Kanab, Utah; History of Kane Co, by Marjery Browne Cottam, p 547 Researcher: Georgenia Stewart